Currently, between 30 – 40% produced globally is never consumed, either because it is spoiled after harvest and during transportation, or it is thrown away by shops and consumers. This number is expected to rise considerably if emerging economies such as China and India adopt western food habits, including eating more meat.

The researchers found that while global average food demand per person remains almost constant, food availability has rapidly increased over the last five decades, which has drastically increased the emissions related to growing surplus food by more than 300%.

In January of this year, a global campaign was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, to halve the amount of food wasted during transportation.